Survivor: San Juan del Sur, the twenty-ninth season of one of the first American Reality TV shows, seems to me to be nearing the end of its run.
Unless
Survivor re-invents itself, somehow.
I did not like the first version of
Survivor: Blood vs. Water. That version had people who had previously been on
Survivor returning with a loved one.
The current relative version is made up of people who had not been on
Survivor, previously. However, two of the Blood vs. Water pairs had people known to some, as in infamous baseballer, John Rocker, and the twinnies from
The Amazing Race, Natalie and Nadiya.
This iteration of
Survivor seems to be the only season where those surviving seem to be gaining weight, rather than getting skinny.
Reward Challenge. Want to know what you're playing for? One week fixing's for a barbecue, another week a trip to a Mexican food all you can eat buffet, with beer and margaritas, another week a yacht trip with sandwiches, along with more beer, another week a trip to a baseball game with hot dogs, popcorn, candy and more beer.
And then there was when the two tribes merged and found themselves with a big buffet spread to gorge themselves on.
Or the one week where the Reward Challenge rewarded with food followed by the Immunity Challenge having more food to tempt the Survivors to give up the challenge.
Oh, and if you somehow eat up the supply of rice you are provided, Probst will show up to make a deal with you for another big bag of rice.
And speaking of Jeff Probst. The Probst play by play at the challenges really needs to be toned down. As does the way Probst asks leading questions at the Tribal Councils, leading questions about things like Immunity Idols not being used, which then causes a flurry of panic which disrupts the well planned who to kick off the island scheme.
As for the challenges, it only makes sense that after 29 seasons the challenges would start to have a deja vu feeling to them. But when, in an effort to do something different you have Probst touting something like "In the first time in
Survivor history for this challenge Survivors can only use their feet" it would seem we have gone into Jumping the Shark territory.
For
Survivor: Season Thirty, I hope Survivor returns to
Survivor: Old School. Don't supply so much food. Make it so hunting, fishing and foraging is the food source.
And no gimmicks, no Redemption Island, no Exile Island, no Hidden Immunity Idols.
And cast only people who have never been on TV before, real people, and no people with serious personality disorders....
